Come Back To Me

COME BACK TO ME – CHAPTER 5

COME BACK TO ME – CHAPTER 5

Soft waves crashed against the boat carrying Zian, his siblings and his aunt. The craft swayed gently as it continued to sail towards its intended destination. So many questions ran through the ten year old’s head even as he braved the churning in his stomach. Travelling both by land and water was never his cup of tea. He always had sickness.

“You okay, Zi-zi?” Evie asked with concern in her dark orbs. She was in her aunt’s lap while Edward sat next to them. Zian nodded to her sister before another awful feeling came back and the urge to throw up his lunch could not be stopped.

“There, there,” Almira lightly tapped and massaged her nephew’s back. “Only ten more minutes and we will be on land.”

“Feels like forever, Auntie,” Evie commented which made the middle aged woman chuckle. It was her first to do so since she left the island province to fetch her brother’s children.

“Go get my grandkids,” Mira, the children’s paternal grandmother demanded Almira very early that morning. The roosters had barely woken everybody up in the small village. “She thinks she could just cheat on her husband, get pregnant, have a miscarriage, and then keep my grandchildren for alimony. Hell no!”

Mira’s words had made Almira sigh deeply. She thought of how messed up his brother’s life had been ever since Zenny decided to bring their children to another province. She still could not believe her sister-in-law could do such a thing to Jamie.

For almost two years, Zenny and Jamie had a rift in their relationship. Zenny had gotten pregnant from an affair causing her to flee the island province and move close to her parents. She lost the child.

Zian did not see what was behind his mother’s empty eyes that soon turned distant and even cruel. How could he? He was very young and his mother was very good at hiding her pain, pain caused by a mistake she could never redeem herself from no matter how far she would run away.

“Aunti, when is mom coming?” Edward asked after they had reached the shores of island that was once their home and will be again. The boy had been quiet since they left. The last time his voice was heard was when he cried and cried while his mother sent them off to the front door of their home saying, “I’ll come to you soon, okay?”

“She’s going to be working a little far away but she will visit you, don’t worry.” Almira had no other choice but to lie. From Evie’s incessant questions to Zian’s endless and silent tears, her heart ached to comfort them. To tell them other than the truth was the gentlest way she could.

The four of them travelled by a jeepney upon reaching the parking spaces for the vehicles bound for their town. Guimaras Island has five municipalities and the family lives on the biggest one which is also the furthest from the port. It would take a little over an hour to reach their little village. They would take a jeepney and then a motorcycle to get there.

The trees blurred in Zian’s eyes as he kept his gaze outside. His grandmother told him that looking outside will ease his car sickness. “Watch the trees. It will calm you down.”

“Grandma…” Zian uttered with teary eyes as he recalled his grandparents’ warm eyes. His lips quivered and once again tears started to roll down his cheeks without permission. There were so many goodbyes in so little time. He was sad. He was angry. Yet only tears could come out of him at that moment. No harsh words. He wanted to blame someone again but the face of his mother came to mind and he shed even more tears.

Upon arriving, the twins were welcomed by their grandmother with open arms. Zian watched as Edward and Evie were wrapped in their grandmother’s arms while he stood and no one was there to extend an arm for him. Their relatives simultaneously called for the twins. His chest hurt and the scene before him pained him more.

Zian clutched on his backpack and slowly retreated to the door and walked away. He began to walk to the side of the house and headed for their old home. It had been three years since he had seen it. It still stood there with its fading green paint and slowly rotting corners. The roof stayed unpainted but withstanding the seasons past.

He stepped onto the front door and slowly turned the knob. It rattled slightly from the loose screws. The door creaked as Zian pushed it and stepped inside. It smelled like old wood and burnt charcoal. Studying the interior, nothing much changed except for the single pillow lying on the wooden sofa. He did not recognize it.

“Zian?”

The boy was startled to hear someone call him. Turning around, he found his older cousin Rio standing by the doorway. Rio is the only son of his father’s oldest brother. He is older than by eight years old. He did not have that much memory of him other than his teasing remarks towards him during family gatherings which weren’t that often. Rio was always missing in family gatherings.

“H-Hi.”

“You rascal!” Rio grabbed the boy and ruffled his hair as he pulled him to the sofa. “You got so tall, dude! Did you eat that much seafood? Wow!”

Zian could not say a word but only chuckle awkwardly at his older cousin’s words.

“How are you?” Rio asked after rough housing with Zian for a good minute.

“I’m okay,” the boy replied. “So, why are you in our house?”

“I’ve been living here,” Rio said, throwing a pillow behind his head and reclining on the armrest. “I couldn’t possibly let the house rot because no one was living in it.”

“What if we never came back, you would still live here forever?”

“Of course! This is your home,” Rio said before straitening back up and tickling his younger cousin. “Did you have lunch before coming back?”

Zian nodded and grimaced remembering how he emptied it all out before they before getting into and during aboard the boat.

“Well, I made your favorite. Perfect timing. Let’s eat!” Rio pulled Zian by the hand and led him to the dining table. The eighteen had deliberately tried to lift his cousin’s mood knowing how much Zian had gone through the past months. He had his share of family problems and he knew how it was like. He might just be someone who could bring the boy’s bright smiles back.

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